I was up pretty early this morning, you know that whole nervous energy thing, and I got to Dorton around 9 the rest of the arrived by 10 and we sat down to watch kickoff with most of North Carolina. As soon as Bill showed the poof ball I was so happy. My first impression of the game is that it should be pretty interesting.but we'll see how it goes.
During lunch I attended the first NC Team Council meeting. It was relatively interesting and should be a big help to teams in the near future. After that I began to review the rules with some of the members of team 3459, Pryotech, to get ready for the human game. Basically we just played the game with human similar to each year at TNT, just a little more structured cause we're trying to learn about the game. I learned a good bit of strategy including that scoring isn't as easy as it looks and there aren't many penalties.
Hitchhikers ended up leaving a little early to meet and discuss our game strategy. I won't go into details but we were able to finalize a relatively simple strategy and discuss most of the robot design.
Tomorrow we're meeting in the afternoon and should a have a smaller group because most of the students have homework, who knew? Hopefully we can get the drive train caded so we can order the parts asap.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Day 0: T'was the day before Kickoff
Well its that time of the year again, robotics season. This season I was be blogging each day during the season recapping what my team, 2059 The Hitchhikers, did at our meeting without giving to much away.
Now on to what I did today: A lot of driving, I left my house at 8 and drove 12 hours to get back to NC State so I would be here for kickoff tomorrow. Tomorrow 2059 will join most of the other teams in North Carolina for kickoff at the home of the NC Regional, Dorton Arena. Not only do we get to watch the game but there will be a full sized field there for us to look at after the broadcast.
I'll have more to say tomorrow but now I think I'm going to get some sleep before the start of the season.
Now on to what I did today: A lot of driving, I left my house at 8 and drove 12 hours to get back to NC State so I would be here for kickoff tomorrow. Tomorrow 2059 will join most of the other teams in North Carolina for kickoff at the home of the NC Regional, Dorton Arena. Not only do we get to watch the game but there will be a full sized field there for us to look at after the broadcast.
I'll have more to say tomorrow but now I think I'm going to get some sleep before the start of the season.
Monday, January 2, 2012
College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
Yesterday I picked winners for the 1st round of my college football playoff. Today I will pick the winners in the quarterfinal games.
December 30 Quarterfinal games:
Tough choice, two great teams and Alabama does have to travel cross-country to the Rose Bowl. Oregon has speed, but Alabama has speed and power. Alabama is very similar to LSU who beat Oregon at the beginning of the season. The key is can Bama's offense put up enough points to compete with the high powered Ducks.
Alabama 31 Oregon 30
Oklahoma State vs. Boise State:
Five years later Boise State returns to the scene of one of the greatest games in college football history and they get to play none other than Oklahoma's instate rival, Oklahoma State. This is Boise's chance to prove that they can hang with the big boys. This game should be an offensive shootout with Boise unable to match-up with Justin Blackmon and Oklahoma State unable to control Kellen Moore.
Boise State 42 Oklahoma State 38
December 31 Quarterfinal games:
Undefeated LSU faces Big Ten champ Wisconsin in a game with two grind it out teams. Both teams seem to find a way to score 30-40 points in every game. LSU has the better defense and couple that with an offense that improved as the season went along could mean a long game for Wisconsin. Two Heisman trophy finalist will add intrigue to this second round game.
LSU 37 Wisconsin 21
Stanford vs. Arkansas:
The final quarterfinal game features the best quarterback in the country against a dynamic offense lead by Tyler Wilson. A long trip for Stanford should help to balance out the game. Ultimately the balanced attack of Stanford takes advantage of a weak Arkansas defense and helps the Cardinal advance to the Semifinals.
Stanford 34 Arkansas 28
The semifinal games feature two SEC teams, three of the top four teams and Boise State with a chance to show everyone they belong.
January 6 Semifinal games:
December 30 Quarterfinal games:
- West #4 Oregon vs. West #1 Alabama, at the Rose Bowl
- West #3 Boise State vs. West #2 Oklahoma State, at the Fiesta Bowl
Tough choice, two great teams and Alabama does have to travel cross-country to the Rose Bowl. Oregon has speed, but Alabama has speed and power. Alabama is very similar to LSU who beat Oregon at the beginning of the season. The key is can Bama's offense put up enough points to compete with the high powered Ducks.
Alabama 31 Oregon 30
Oklahoma State vs. Boise State:
Five years later Boise State returns to the scene of one of the greatest games in college football history and they get to play none other than Oklahoma's instate rival, Oklahoma State. This is Boise's chance to prove that they can hang with the big boys. This game should be an offensive shootout with Boise unable to match-up with Justin Blackmon and Oklahoma State unable to control Kellen Moore.
Boise State 42 Oklahoma State 38
December 31 Quarterfinal games:
- East #5 Wisconsin vs. East #1 LSU, at the Outback Bowl
- East #3 Arkansas vs. East #2 Stanford, at the Capital One Bowl
Undefeated LSU faces Big Ten champ Wisconsin in a game with two grind it out teams. Both teams seem to find a way to score 30-40 points in every game. LSU has the better defense and couple that with an offense that improved as the season went along could mean a long game for Wisconsin. Two Heisman trophy finalist will add intrigue to this second round game.
LSU 37 Wisconsin 21
Stanford vs. Arkansas:
The final quarterfinal game features the best quarterback in the country against a dynamic offense lead by Tyler Wilson. A long trip for Stanford should help to balance out the game. Ultimately the balanced attack of Stanford takes advantage of a weak Arkansas defense and helps the Cardinal advance to the Semifinals.
Stanford 34 Arkansas 28
The semifinal games feature two SEC teams, three of the top four teams and Boise State with a chance to show everyone they belong.
January 6 Semifinal games:
- West #5 Boise State vs. West #1 Alabama, at the Fiesta Bowl
- East #1 LSU vs. East #2 Stanford, at the Orange Bowl
Sunday, January 1, 2012
College Football Playoff Round 1
Last week I laid out my ideas on how to fix the BCS. Now I am going to go over the match-ups in my tournament start with the 1st round match-ups.
December 22 1st round games:
This one is pretty straight forward. With the exception of the LSU game no team has gotten within 16 points of the Crimson Tide. Alabama has beaten four top 25 team while the only top 25 team Northern Illinois played beat them by 42.
Alabama 49 Northern Illinois 10
Stanford vs. West Virginia:
Stanford is the only one of the top four seeds to be facing a team from one of the big six conference, and I use that term with the Big East loosely. West Virginia played 2 top 25 beating Cincinnati by 3 and losing to LSU by 26. Regardless of their schedule they are a quality team and will give Stanford a run for its money. Stanford's only lose was to Oregon and their key wins were against Washington, USC, and Notre Dame. Overall Stanford will come out victorious but the game will be closer than you would expect from a 2-7 match-up.
Stanford 24 West Virginia 21
Arkansas vs. Southern Miss.:
Arkansas really fly under the radar this, but that was more due to the fact the the top two seeds were from the same division in the SEC. Despite that Arkansas still beat three top 25 teams and used their potent offense to beat everyone else except Alabama and LSU. Southern Miss came on late and despite a lose to UAB was able to finish 11-2 including and upset over undefeated Houston in the CUSA championship game. You would think that their recent experience would give them a chance for the stunner but losing their coach to UNC negates all of that.
Arkansas 41 Southern Miss. 30
Oregon vs. Clemson:
Overall the best game of the first day of the Bowl Championship Tournament featuring two of the countries most explosive offenses. The biggest factor in this game is the fact that it is in Oregon and Clemson has two travel across the country. Both team get healthy with the two week break but in the end the home field advantage and long travel distance proves two much so Clemson.
Oregon 52 Clemson 42
December 23 1st round games:
The most intriguing thing about this game is the fact that both schools are in Louisiana and tickets will be hard to come by. On the field LSU is undefeated and has dominated in every game but one and Tech has 4 losses on the season.
LSU 45 Louisiana Tech 6
Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas State:
Arkansas St is a great story, coming from out of nowhere to win 10 games and getting Hugh Freeze the Ole Miss job. Losing their head coach and the inability to cover Justin Blackmon allows the Pokes to move on to the next round in a romp.
Oklahoma State 35 Arkansas State 13
Boise State vs. TCU:
This is the only match-up of conference teams as well as the only the rematch of the 1st round. Once again the game takes place at Boise and if it is anything like the first game we should be in for a thriller. Both teams are evenly matched but the weather in Boise give the Broncos a small advantage which is all that it take to make sure the Boise's deficiencies in the kicking game don't show up for at least one week.
Boise State 35 TCU 31
Kansas State vs. Wisconsin:
A Midwest match-up taking place at the home of one of the surprising teams in college football this year. Kansas State lost both of their games against top 10 team and only narrowly beat Baylor and Texas. Wisconsin on the other hand only lost games within the last minute so as long as they have at least a one score lead they should be fine. Ultimately the more all around team pulls off the only upset of the 1st round.
Wisconsin 31 Kansas State 20
This sets up the next round of games to be:
December 30 Quarterfinal games:
December 22 1st round games:
- West #8 Northern Illinois at West #1 Alabama, at Bryant-Denny Stadium
- East #7 West Virginia at East #2 Stanford, at Stanford Stadium
- East #6 Southern Miss at East #3 Arkansas, at Reynolds Razorback Stadium
- West #5 Clemson at West #4 Oregon, at Autzen Stadium
This one is pretty straight forward. With the exception of the LSU game no team has gotten within 16 points of the Crimson Tide. Alabama has beaten four top 25 team while the only top 25 team Northern Illinois played beat them by 42.
Alabama 49 Northern Illinois 10
Stanford vs. West Virginia:
Stanford is the only one of the top four seeds to be facing a team from one of the big six conference, and I use that term with the Big East loosely. West Virginia played 2 top 25 beating Cincinnati by 3 and losing to LSU by 26. Regardless of their schedule they are a quality team and will give Stanford a run for its money. Stanford's only lose was to Oregon and their key wins were against Washington, USC, and Notre Dame. Overall Stanford will come out victorious but the game will be closer than you would expect from a 2-7 match-up.
Stanford 24 West Virginia 21
Arkansas vs. Southern Miss.:
Arkansas really fly under the radar this, but that was more due to the fact the the top two seeds were from the same division in the SEC. Despite that Arkansas still beat three top 25 teams and used their potent offense to beat everyone else except Alabama and LSU. Southern Miss came on late and despite a lose to UAB was able to finish 11-2 including and upset over undefeated Houston in the CUSA championship game. You would think that their recent experience would give them a chance for the stunner but losing their coach to UNC negates all of that.
Arkansas 41 Southern Miss. 30
Oregon vs. Clemson:
Overall the best game of the first day of the Bowl Championship Tournament featuring two of the countries most explosive offenses. The biggest factor in this game is the fact that it is in Oregon and Clemson has two travel across the country. Both team get healthy with the two week break but in the end the home field advantage and long travel distance proves two much so Clemson.
Oregon 52 Clemson 42
December 23 1st round games:
- East #8 Louisiana Tech at East #1 Louisiana State, at Tiger Stadium
- West #7 Arkansas State at West #2 Oklahoma State, at Boone Pickens Stadium
- West #6 TCU at West #3 Boise State, at Broncos Stadium
- East #5 Wisconsin at East #4 Kansas State, at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium
The most intriguing thing about this game is the fact that both schools are in Louisiana and tickets will be hard to come by. On the field LSU is undefeated and has dominated in every game but one and Tech has 4 losses on the season.
LSU 45 Louisiana Tech 6
Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas State:
Arkansas St is a great story, coming from out of nowhere to win 10 games and getting Hugh Freeze the Ole Miss job. Losing their head coach and the inability to cover Justin Blackmon allows the Pokes to move on to the next round in a romp.
Oklahoma State 35 Arkansas State 13
Boise State vs. TCU:
This is the only match-up of conference teams as well as the only the rematch of the 1st round. Once again the game takes place at Boise and if it is anything like the first game we should be in for a thriller. Both teams are evenly matched but the weather in Boise give the Broncos a small advantage which is all that it take to make sure the Boise's deficiencies in the kicking game don't show up for at least one week.
Boise State 35 TCU 31
Kansas State vs. Wisconsin:
A Midwest match-up taking place at the home of one of the surprising teams in college football this year. Kansas State lost both of their games against top 10 team and only narrowly beat Baylor and Texas. Wisconsin on the other hand only lost games within the last minute so as long as they have at least a one score lead they should be fine. Ultimately the more all around team pulls off the only upset of the 1st round.
Wisconsin 31 Kansas State 20
This sets up the next round of games to be:
December 30 Quarterfinal games:
- West #4 Oregon vs. West #1 Alabama, at the Rose Bowl
- West #3 Boise State vs. West #2 Oklahoma State, at the Fiesta Bowl
- East #5 Wisconsin vs. East #1 LSU, at the Outback Bowl
- East #3 Arkansas vs. East #2 Stanford, at the Capital One Bowl
Saturday, December 24, 2011
College Football Playoff
Every year around this time everyone from casual fans to coaches discuss the problems with the Bowl Championship Series(BCS) and how they would fix it. Of course I have an idea and here it is:
A 16 team tournament featuring the conference champions from all 11 conferences, yes even the WAC and Sun Belt, plus the top 5 at-large team in the Bowl Championship Tournament rankings. The difference between these ranking and the current BCS standings is the fact that my ranking have no human polls which takes that element out of the rankings.
2011 Final Rankings:
The teams highlighted in yellow are the at-large teams.
Based on the rankings the teams in the 2011 Bowl Championship Tournament are:
LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma St., Stanford, Arkansas, Boise St., Oregon, Kansas St., Wisconsin, Clemson, TCU, Southern Miss., West Virginia, Arkansas St., Northern Illinois, Louisiana Tech
The at-large team come from the SEC(2), Big 12, Pac-12, and Mountain West.
The teams are ranking based on their place in the poll and matched up just how they should be in a 16 team bracket. The 1-16, 4-13, 5-12, and the 8-9 match-ups are in the East bracket while the other four game are in the West. The brackets swap each year and defined by the location of the 2nd and 3rd round games. The East bowl games are Outback, Capital One, and Orange and the West bowl games are Rose, Cotton, and Fiesta. The seventh bowl game is the Sugar bowl which this year is hosting the championship game. They rotate around each year so each bowl gets the championship once every 7 years and a semifinal game every 3-4 years. The 1st round game take place at the home of the highest ranked team which encourages team to play well during the season to get an extra home game.
Here is the bracket with the 1st round match-ups.
December 22 1st round games:
A 16 team tournament featuring the conference champions from all 11 conferences, yes even the WAC and Sun Belt, plus the top 5 at-large team in the Bowl Championship Tournament rankings. The difference between these ranking and the current BCS standings is the fact that my ranking have no human polls which takes that element out of the rankings.
2011 Final Rankings:
The teams highlighted in yellow are the at-large teams.
LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma St., Stanford, Arkansas, Boise St., Oregon, Kansas St., Wisconsin, Clemson, TCU, Southern Miss., West Virginia, Arkansas St., Northern Illinois, Louisiana Tech
The at-large team come from the SEC(2), Big 12, Pac-12, and Mountain West.
The teams are ranking based on their place in the poll and matched up just how they should be in a 16 team bracket. The 1-16, 4-13, 5-12, and the 8-9 match-ups are in the East bracket while the other four game are in the West. The brackets swap each year and defined by the location of the 2nd and 3rd round games. The East bowl games are Outback, Capital One, and Orange and the West bowl games are Rose, Cotton, and Fiesta. The seventh bowl game is the Sugar bowl which this year is hosting the championship game. They rotate around each year so each bowl gets the championship once every 7 years and a semifinal game every 3-4 years. The 1st round game take place at the home of the highest ranked team which encourages team to play well during the season to get an extra home game.
Here is the bracket with the 1st round match-ups.
December 22 1st round games:
- West #8 Northern Illinois at West #1 Alabama, at Bryant-Denny Stadium
- East #7 West Virginia at East #2 Stanford, at Stanford Stadium
- East #6 Southern Miss at East #3 Arkansas, at Reynolds Razorback Stadium
- West #5 Clemson at West #4 Oregon, at Autzen Stadium
- East #8 Louisiana Tech at East #1 Louisiana State, at Tiger Stadium
- West #7 Arkansas State at West #2 Oklahoma State, at Boone Pickens Stadium
- West #6 TCU at West #3 Boise State, at Broncos Stadium
- East #5 Wisconsin at East #4 Kansas State, at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium
Sunday, December 4, 2011
RIM to get ride of Blackberry?
At one point a few years ago the cool phones out there were Blackberries. They were the top choice of business people and many kids wanted them as well. Since then Apple has released it's hugely popular IPhone and Google has developed it's Android OS which is used in tons of the newest phones. These two developments have dropped RIM, Blackberry's maker, market share to around 9% down from 24% last year. There may be a day soon were Blackberries don't exist anymore but will RIM go down with the ship?
Not if they have anything to say about. From this article on MSNBC RIM is looking to become the IBM of the mobile phone world. RIM just announced Blackberry Mobile Fusion which is security software aim at its Blackberry phones as well as IOS and Android phones. Fusion can handle all the apps, password and other software currently being run on all of the phone it supports. It also can wipe the memory of a stolen or lost phone and is set up to keep people from leaving Blackberry Enterprise Servers, which are used by many businesses. Hopefully this software will be a success and give RIM time to revamp it's phone line to compete with Apple and Google because losing a company that has such a great history in phones would defiantly hurt the industry.
Not if they have anything to say about. From this article on MSNBC RIM is looking to become the IBM of the mobile phone world. RIM just announced Blackberry Mobile Fusion which is security software aim at its Blackberry phones as well as IOS and Android phones. Fusion can handle all the apps, password and other software currently being run on all of the phone it supports. It also can wipe the memory of a stolen or lost phone and is set up to keep people from leaving Blackberry Enterprise Servers, which are used by many businesses. Hopefully this software will be a success and give RIM time to revamp it's phone line to compete with Apple and Google because losing a company that has such a great history in phones would defiantly hurt the industry.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Change in Technology Interview
For extra credit my History 341 professor asked us to interview an elderly relative about how history has changed in the last 50 or so years. I decided to interview Mary Meah, who is a longtime family friend and previously served as my brothers and I’s nanny back in the day.
Can you give me a quick rundown of your life and how you ended up in Florida?
I was born and raised in Portsmouth in southern England and grew up during World War II. My son was a soccer coach and he came to America 34 years ago. He coached in Chicago as part of an exchange program. At the end of the program he wanted to come back full time and he did, finishing high school and getting a soccer scholarship at a small college. I came to Florida for the warm weather after living in Colorado for a number of years. I’ve always wanted to come to America ever since I was a child. It started when I would see the American sailors in Portsmouth and that created an ambition to come and live in America.
What is the biggest change in technology for you in the last 50 years?
Definitely in the medical field, it phenomenal the way people live much longer now. Back in England sixty was really old and now many people live into their nineties. The MRIs, heart transplants, and such have been vast technological advancements.
How was the technology different in America than it was in England when you moved here?
- For a start obviously everybody had to have a car and they were much bigger than they were in England. The roads were very different and the freeways blew my mind.
- When I left England approximately half of the people had a telephone in their house while in America everyone had a phone.
- Television was very different, when I left England there were only two channels and they wouldn’t come on till the evening. But they seem to be catching up every time I go back. When I originally came England was 7 to 10 years behind America in technology.
- When I was growing up we didn’t have a fridge until I was 18 and it was so tiny that the only thing in it was a bottle of milk and butter. For food we would just go out buy it and then eat it immediately.
What one piece of technology do you wish you had 50 years ago?
Well I got to say the computer for the knowledge you can get. All we had was the library to get all of our knowledge.
Tell me a story about technology in your life?
We didn’t have a telephone when I was growing up. The first phone I had was for my hairdressing business. Most of us just used telephone boxes, which was within 3 or 4 miles of our house. The only people that had telephones were business and the wealthy. Cars and telephone seemed to go hand in hand. My father was extremely nervous about picking up the telephone, he basically wouldn’t. Even when I asked him at my business he wouldn’t pick it up because he was nervous of someone being on the other end of the line. It wasn’t just him, a lot of people felt the same way about phone because most of the time it was bad news that would be passed over the phone. The most important events were transmitted by telegrams and were delivered by a telegram boy, my family would be afraid to get the door because they didn’t want to hear bad news.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)